A pirate can assemble a system -- including a dish, a receiver and a decorder (together called an STB) for as low as Rs 900-1,000. This, tuned into different frequencies, can steal signals of most of the DTH operators. According to IMI, which represents over 50 companies including big labels like Saregama, Tips, Venus and Sony Music, the music industry derives a substantial amount of their revenues from TV and Internet rights.
Officials said the IBA had three major agendas to discuss, the most important being to persuade the unions to accept the new pension scheme, otherwise known as the contributory pension scheme, for new bank employees. Currently, the bank unions are vehemently opposing it since unions of no other sector has accepted it to date.
According to official sources, complaints were received by the department that TDS was being collected arbitrarily by the payers. Another reason for this decision is that refunds from the department have also gone up. Sources said it should not affect the assessee who may be paying a high rate of TDS and is not compensated even after the employer or broking firm or any other organisation gets a refund on higher rate of TDS which may not be applicable to such income.
In what could be one of the largest outsourcing deals in the Indian telecom space, Reliance Communications is close to awarding a $500-600 million (Rs 2,500-3,000 crore) operations and maintenance contract to Foprench telecom infrastructure provider Alactel-Lucent.
Members of the Securities and Exchange Board of India have suggested a phased reduction of the securities transaction tax, as part of a package of measures to develop the capital markets that was discussed with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last week.
Assessment reports will be shared with all employees
While a number of players invested more in Indian companies, another set exited the market, making profits after March. The companies that invested included Saif Partners, which made a $24 million investment in Network18, and Times Private Treaties, which acquired 12 per cent in Jiny & Jony (for an undisclosed sum), according to data with analysts and brokerage firms.
In the first move of its kind in the country, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has decided to finance investor associations that propose to fight collective suits - which resemble US or European-style class action suits - in Indian courts
The clauses on corporate debt restructuring (CDR) are being reworked in view of the huge foreign exchange exposure of several companies, which have already opted for restructuring debt or are on their way to seeking approval for one.
Three telecom companies - Spanco Telesystems and Solutions, TVS Interconnect Systems (a TVS group firm) and Acme Tele Power - have emerged as the front-runners for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (BSNL) Rs 30,000-crore infrastructure contract.
Move aimed at strengthening Sebi's powers to investigate market-related offences.
Watching movies on direct-to-home has become cheaper, with two major DTH operators, Airtel DTH and Big TV, slashing pay-per-view (PPV) prices of premiere (new) movies. While Airtel DTH has reduced prices of paid movie services by 33 per cent, Big TV has cut prices by around 50 per cent.
According to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority -- the body allocating IP addresses -- there were only 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses of which, 68 per cent have been already allocated and 13 per cent are unavailable due to technical issues. All IP4 addresses will run out by April 2010. This makes it necessary for users to move over to IPv6, or the next version that supports a total of 16 billion IP addresses.
The fully business-class airline is to commence services to 35 more cities, increasing its domestic routes to 50 by the end of 2010. Delhi is one of the new planned destinations, so are Imphal, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Bhopal, Nagpur, Porbander and other places in Gujarat. This is in addition to the earlier announced plans of launching services to Kolkata, Guwahati and Agartala, connecting these to the south Indian cities of Chennai, Coimbatore and Kochi.
GSM mobile service providers are opposing an 11-digit mobile numbering proposal on grounds that it would inconvenience the country's 390 million subscribers. They are also seeking to end the exclusive two-digit operator code provided to three service providers.
The mobile tariffs in the world's cheapest telecom market are set to fall further by at least 20-25 per cent during the year, more so due to increasing number of telecom operators and infrastructure overcapacity.
TCS had dropped plans to boost its headcount in Australia even though it recorded double-digit revenue growth, according to reports and blog posts from the country. The Tata group company employed around 950 people in Australia at the end of the previous year, but around 50 have since been relocated to India. This puts TCS' total employee base in that country at around 900, reports say.
Failed attempt to acquire stake in Kolhapur-based bank seen as trigger.
IMI is close to launching a programme - Music Mobile Exchange (MMX) - mainly to curb mobile chip piracy which refers to downloading music from the web or illegally copying it from cassettes or CDs and then transferring it to mobile phones.
At a time the industry is slashing headcount, citing the downturn, direct-to-home (DTH) television service providers are adding employees.